Donald Trump lashes out at Nancy Pelosi over cover-up comments, claiming to be 'most transparent president in US history'
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Pressure is intensifying on Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
An increasing number of Democrats - and even a Republican congressman - are openly calling for the measure in response to the Mueller report's findings and the Trump administration's refusal to submit documents to congressional investigations.
Mr Trump on Wednesday sabotaged a planned White House meeting with Ms Pelosi on infrastructure, and said he would not work with Democrats until all probes into him were closed.
Meanwhile, the president announced a massive $16bn (£12.6bn) aid package for farmers on Thursday, amid an intensifying confrontation with China on trade. US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or August and suggested that the US and China were unlikely to have settled their differences by then.
“The package we’re announcing today ensures that farmers do not bear the brunt of unfair retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other trading partners,” Mr Perdue said.
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The latest bailout comes atop $11bn (£8.7bn) in aid Mr Trump provided farmers last year.
“We will ensure our farmers get the relief they need and very, very quickly,” Mr Trump said in an unwieldy press conference on Thursday in which he insisted is a "very stable genius."
Seeking to reduce America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world and with China in particular, the president has imposed import taxes on foreign steel, aluminium, solar panels and dishwashers and on thousands of Chinese products.
US trading partners have lashed back with retaliatory tariffs of their own, focusing on U.S. agricultural products in a direct shot at the American heartland, where support for Trump runs high.
Financial markets slumped Thursday on heightened tensions between the US and China. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 286 points, or 1 per cent, to 25,490. It had been down 448 points earlier in the day.
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Additional reporting by AP. Check out live updates as the came in below.
Donald Trump on the upcoming release of Fire and Fury 2, the sequel to a book published last year which detailed a chaotic and dysfunctional White House.
A bank CEO, Stephen Calk, has been indicted for approving loans for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, hoping to get a job in the administration.
According to NBC News:
"As alleged, Stephen M. Calk abused the power entrusted to him as the top official of a federally insured bank by approving millions of dollars in high-risk loans in an effort to secure a personal benefit, namely an appointment as Secretary of the Army or another similarly high-level position in the incoming presidential administration," Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.
Pete Buttigieg says that be believes Donald Trump faked his disability in order to avoid the Vietnam draft.
“I mean, if he were a conscientious objector, I’d admire that, but this is somebody who, I think it is fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of a multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place," Mr Buttigieg said during an event in Washington hosted by the Washington Post.
He continued:
“I know that dredges up old wounds from a complicated time during a complicated war, but I am also old enough to remember when conservatives talked about character as something that mattered in the presidency, and so I think it deserves to be talked about.”
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